Political Roundup: Endorsements, Disses and Statistics

There’s only two days left to go. On Tuesday night, after the dust has settled (hopefully), the tumultuous 2016 election season will have come to an end, and our daily lives can resume normalcy (hopefully). Until then, there’s a couple of last minute updates across both the local and national political spectrum that might be worth your attention before casting your vote (if you haven’t already):

President Obama Endorses Zach Klein

There’s not a whole lot of local races on this year’s ballot, which makes the competition for the office of Franklin County Prosecutor stick out more so than usual. Democratic challenger Zach Klein is looking to unseat incumbent Republican Ron O’Brien, who has served in the role since 1996. Klein landed a newsworthy endorsement yesterday: President Barack Obama.

According to the release from the Franklin County Democratic Party, Klein is one of the few candidates to receive the Presidential nod. Instead of delving into local races, Obama has spent much of his campaign time focused on supporting Hillary Clinton’s bid for president.

Kasich Disses Trump, Votes for Write-In McCain

It’s no secret that Ohio Governor John Kasich and Presidential Candidate Donald Trump do not get along. Kasich was one of many prominent national Republican leaders who condemned Trump after one of his many offensive remarks throughout the unorthodox campaign trail, but several Republicans have since backpedaled to continue to support Trump, or have gone silent about speaking out any further.

Kasich on the other hand told the Plain Dealer last weekend that he had casted his early ballot and had written in Arizona Senator John McCain as his choice for the oval office. The vote cast by Kasich is only symbolic, as McCain is not eligible for a write-in vote, but his likely intent was to send a broader message to Ohio voters with his choice.

FiveThirtyEight Methodology Called into Question

If you’ve been following the statistics of this year’s election, you’ve likely checked in on FiveThirtyEight.com at least once or twice or a dozen times per day over the past several months. The data analysis gurus behind the site have become the gold standard bearer after correctly predicting the outcome of the 2012 election, getting all 50 states correct.

Anyone who follows the site may have noticed a sizable shift over the past two weeks, where a 86 percent chance of a Clinton victory has dropped rapidly to a 64 percent chance. Most other polling aggregate sites have not reported similar changes in their numbers, leaving some to question whether or not FiveThirtyEight’s methodology has gone off the rails. Most notably, the liberal-leaning Huffington Post called out the site over the weekend, while FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver continued to defend their numbers.

Early Voting Continues to Set Records in Franklin County

Five days ago, the Ohio Democratic Party reported that early voting in Ohio is seeing record high turnout, and this weekend, the Franklin County Democratic Party reported more of the same at the county level. A total of 6,883 voters cast ballots on Friday, which is the highest single-day turnout ever reported for Franklin County.

“What we’re hearing on the ground and seeing in these early voting numbers is that Franklin County voters are incredibly motivated to cast their ballots in this year’s election,” stated Franklin County Democratic Party Chairman Michael Sexton. “We set the in-person early voting record on Thursday — and then went out and broke that record the very next day.”

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Walker is the co-founder of ColumbusUnderground.com and TheMetropreneur.com along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.

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Walker is the co-founder of ColumbusUnderground.com and TheMetropreneur.com along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.